Plugin Manager to support a variety of additional plugins: Template plugins can be used to style the gallery with a custom theme Language plugins can be used to translate the software Vi
Trang 1AllVideos has the following features:
1 Dozens of video distribution sites are supported For example, YouTube,
Google Videos, Vimeo, Metacafe, Brightcove, Dailymotion, Revver, Spike,
and more!
2 You can stream your own popular video formats, including fla, swf,
.mp4, mov, wmv, wma, mp3, 3gp, divx
3 You can embed video content from your own server, or a remote one
4 It is easy to use Set the Plugin Parameters, make the plugin published, and
you're ready to stream video content from your website
5 You can customize your own display of the output from this plugin using a
skinable template system
It is worth mentioning that there has been a developed fork of this extension,
called AllVideos Reloaded Both extensions are popular, and have continued
development and their own set of features Please review both of them at
http://extensions.joomla.org (listed under the Multimedia category,
or search for "AllVideos") to view the comparisons
Trang 2hwdVideoShare is a video sharing gallery extension consisting of a component and
plugin The purpose of this extension is to provide you with the features of a video
gallery and distribution website, such as YouTube
The component requires FFMPEG, MENCODER, and FLVTOOL2 to run, and can
support the MPG, MPEG, AVI, DIVX, MP4, FLV, WMV, RM, MOV, MOOV, ASF,
SWF, and VOB video formats
Videos from third-party sources such as YouTube and Google Videos are also
supported, and function seamlessly with uploaded media, while users can rate,
comment, report, and add videos to their favorites
The software uses the Joomla! Plugin Manager to support a variety of
additional plugins:
Template plugins can be used to style the gallery with a custom theme
Language plugins can be used to translate the software
Video player plugins can be used to change the video player
Third party video plugins can be used to import videos from popular
video sites
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Trang 3This extension also integrates with the developers of additional products,
providing further capabilities To download this extension, visit
http://extensions.joomla.org and search for "hwdVideoShare"
Simple Flash Video Player
The Simple Flash Video Player is a module for Joomla! 1.5, and is based on the JW
player It is easy to use and has the following features:
Plays a single video file from a URL or unlimited video files from a playlist
Plays YouTube videos
Supports the playback of any format that the Adobe Flash Player can handle
(FLV, MP4, MP3, AAC, JPG, PNG, and GIF)
The module contains the following parameters, which can be adjusted:
Change player settings
Video file properties
Playlist settings
Display a preview image
Insert your own logo on movie load
URL to an external page
Autostart, repeat, and shuffle settings
To download the Simple Flash Video Player module, visit http://extensions
joomla.org and search for "Flash Video"
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Trang 4RokBox is a MooTools powered JavaScript slideshow and multimedia plugin,
displaying your content in an eye-catching lightbox type pop-up effect
RokBox can display multiple media formats, including images, videos, videos from
sharing sites, and audio It is one of a new breed of plugins that can provide multiple
media content capabilities right out-of-the-box
RokBox comes with two default themes, but is designed so that you can tailor
a theme for your site design, creating a tailored multimedia display for your
site media
Features include:
MooTools v1.11 compatible
Four customizable transition types: Fade, QuickSilver, Growl, Explode
Support for PDF, images, FLV, QuickTime (.mov, m4v), Windows Media
Video (.wmv), Flash (.swf), YouTube, DailyMotion, Metacafe, Google Videos,
Vimeo, audio (.mp3, wav, m4a), local and remote sites
Support for albums/categories
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Trang 5Ability to pop up RokBox in pixels or percentages and in full screen, relative
to the browser window
Support for captions, including support for titles and descriptions
Two predefined themes provided: light theme and dark theme
Support for custom themes with the ability to customize styles and the
RokBox configuration per theme
Ability to auto-generate thumbnails when RokBox-ing local images
Support for generating thumbnails or inline links from your Joomla! content
RokBox is a great plugin Its simplicity, good looks, and versatility of media types,
make it a very useful extension to your site
To download RokBox, visit http://extensions.joomla.org and search
for "RokBox"
Shadowbox
Like RokBox, Shadowbox is an online media viewer application that supports all of
the Web's most popular media publishing formats
Shadowbox is written entirely in JavaScript and CSS and is highly customizable
Using Shadowbox, website authors can showcase a wide assortment of media in
all major browsers without navigating users away from the linking page
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Trang 6Shadowbox can support images, audio, and video The available video
formats include:
QuickTime
Flash
Windows Media
You can use Shadowbox to display media from links within your articles and
modules, as it is the included rel in the hyperlink that activates the plugin This
means you can utilize the Shadowbox feature on any hyperlink you wish:
<a href="/myimage.jpg" rel="shadowbox">My Image</a>
As with RokBox, Shadowbox is a multi-use media plugin for your Joomla! website,
so it may be all that you need for your multimedia requirements The extension can
be downloaded at http://extensions.joomla.org by searching for "Shadow"
There are numerous other video extensions and solutions for Joomla! Many of these
provide powerful features, but fall under commercial licenses and have not been
covered in this section If you require specific Joomla! video features, a search on
http://extensions.joomla.org or via a popular search engine will provide you
with additional solutions to those listed here
Browser support and video accessibility
Video is a great tool for entertaining and delivering information to your site visitors
and is now more common than it ever has been on the Web
At first thought, it may seem that video is not the ideal media (in terms of accessibility)
to have loading into a web page If used correctly though, video can actually enhance
the accessibility of a web page by becoming an additional means to deliver audio and
visual content to site users Due to these combined mediums, video is becoming a
useful device for considerably enhancing the accessibility of web pages
Problems arise, however, when correct text alternatives are not made available,
which then makes the video content on the page inaccessible to certain audiences
For example, a video which has no audio content is inaccessible to those who are
visually impaired, or to someone who is both visually and hearing impaired, it is
of no use at all
Text equivalents should always be made available wherever possible For example,
if your video is about "How to use our product", make sure that you offer a text
description of the content available in the video, either on the same page or as a
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Trang 7Good practice techniques
Here are some good practice techniques when using videos in your Joomla! pages
Text transcripts
It is good practice to provide a text transcript to everything you do on your web
page For example, the alt tag of an image provides a text transcript of alternative
text, allowing the user to know there is an image about that subject loading into that
area of the page
If your video is about a speech or news, provide a text transcript of that content
and make it available via a hyperlink to another area, or better yet, make it available
on the same page somewhere Text transcripts can be from a few words long to
hundreds of them; your good judgment will be important to accurately describe
your video content
Alternative content
Just like images, your HTML, which includes the video into your web page can also
contain alternative content The object element can be used to contain all types of
information, much more than that of an image tag <img />
An example would be, if you want to provide a Windows wmv video on your
webpage, then users who use Apple Macs wont be able to view this unless they have
downloaded the Windows Media Player for MAC Using the object element, you
can specify that if the user can't play wmv, then you should load a MPEG version
(or alternative format) of that movie instead If the MPEG movie isn't supported,
you could specify that a text transcription be delivered instead
Alternative content can not only help people with text-based browsers and screen
readers, but it can be picked up by search engines
Captioning
Captions on video content can be useful to the hearing impaired, or people with no
speakers on their computers Captioning may not always be suitable However, for
video content that is news or training-based, captions generally only enhance the
video content
Trang 8Video controls
Offering controls to manipulate the playback of your video is great practice and now
almost an expectation Video controls let your visitors control the pace of the video,
pause and re-view the video, as well as turn the audio on and off, and so on:
A simple feature such as playbar, pause and audio buttons on your video player
all help in making that piece of video so much more accessible than one which just
plays in a box without control features
Web browsers are becoming more and more complex, containing powerful
multimedia capabilities built into them In days gone by, it was not uncommon to hit
a web page and have to then go off and download a browser plugin in order to view
the multimedia content displayed on that page
These web browser plugins were optional software, which enhanced or added a
particular function to the web browser Users who do not have the capability to play
your particular video format would need to download a plugin for their browsers in
order to play that video format
Some of the most popular video browser plugins are:
Adobe Flash Player
Apple QuickTime Player
Real Media Player
Windows Media Player
The problem with the question "Which video format is best to use for the Web?" is
that none of them are 100 percent compatible for everyone The trick is to choose the
one, which will be suitable for a high percentage of your site visitors and then try to
cater in other ways for other users
According to numerous studies on the topic, Adobe Flash is now one of the most
popular and widespread formats for displaying video on the Web Almost all
modern web browsers now have Flash installed, and statistics show over 98 percent
of personal computers can play Flash files
If you choose not to use Flash, then I suggest saving your movies to a
MPEG-4 format (.mp4) These will also be playable by the majority of users across
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Trang 9Joomla! really is an excellent framework for displaying video content Although, it
does not have a built-in easy-click video function out-of-the-box, at its basic form the
article pages display HTML code within your template structure This means that
we can upload, include, and embed all types of HTML for displaying video content
within our Joomla! Articles, just as you would with hand-built HTML pages
Taking this a step further, we have a wealth of video capabilities from Joomla!
Extensions, which bring amazingly powerful video features into the CMS From
great looking players that can be played into module positions, to full blown "Host
your own Joomla! YouTube" components, Joomla! Extensions are really where it
is at for cutting edge web video solutions If you use distribution services such as
YouTube and Google Videos, then displaying this content within your Joomla!
site can be a simple "few clicks process", and may save you money on web hosting
bandwidth costs
The choice of video formats and accessibility can seem confusing at first, but there
are a few standard formats such as Flash and MPEG-4 which are good options to
use, and will make sure that your content will be displayed to the majority of your
site visitors When including this video content, think about offering the video in
multiple formats and make text-equivalent content available for accessibility reasons
Video will bring a new dimension to your Joomla! sites Use it with knowledge and
consideration, and it will definitely enhance your site visitors' experiences